I am seeing more of this type of writing arise after the popularity of the DaVinci Code. How do we refute the statements made below (by an atheist author)?
She claims:
1. Only a few secular historians even mention Jesus’ existence, and Christian apologetics continue to quote the same ones over and over again, but the fact is that most secular Roman and Jewish historians during Jesus’ time made no mention of him.
2. Much of the traditions of Christianity were borrowed from Persian and Roman pagan rituals; Trinity, blood and wine sacrifice, virgin birth, resurrection, Son of Man, Bread of God, Only begotten son.
These types of writings are dangerous and are becoming more common. They can weaken and perhaps destroy a person’s faith.
On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples that while the world would not see Him anymore, that they would see Him again. Phillip asked why this was so, and Jesus answered that if anyone loved Him and obeyed His teaching He would come to him, but not to those who didn’t love Him or obey Him. (John 14:19-24)
If you or I had come out of the tomb on the 3rd day after our death, we would have run straight into the Temple and showed ourselves to all who were there, daring them to try and kill us again. But Jesus never again appeared to someone who hadn’t sought Him. God had done everything possible. Now it was up to man.
The article you sent me is easily refutable fiction that the writer herself could disprove in a few hours time in front of her computer. Renowned former atheists like C.S.Lewis, Simon Greenleaf, and Josh MacDowell have shown this to be true.
Instead, she has chosen to deny the most thoroughly documented event in history. There’s more proof that Jesus is who He claims to be than there is that you’re who you claim to be or that this writer is who she claims to be. But presenting this proof to her will do no good until she decides to search for the truth instead of passing off her unsubstantiated opinion as if it was the truth.
Articles like this have come and gone since the beginning but the truth of the Gospel remains. Think about that. She attributes this to “the most insistent and aggressive indoctrination campaign the world has ever seen”, but by whom and for what reason? Christianity is opposed to everything the world stands for. Can you even imagine what it would take to maintain such a high believability in something for so long if it was all a lie?
1 Cor. 2:14 says that people without the Spirit do not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God because they’re foolishness to them, and they cannot understand them. True believers have the Spirit of God and aren’t dissuaded by articles like this. Never have been, never will be.
As for those who are seeking, the Lord said that everyone who seeks Him will find Him, (Matt. 7:7-8) and once they do, He will never lose even one of them. (John 6:39) Articles by atheists notwithstanding.